The Fountain of Youth Part 2--Bustin Plateaus!!

I appreciate the input I received on the Fountain of Youth part 1 blog. I also appreciate that ya’ll took it as it was meant to be. Yes, it was “in your face” but in a tough love kind of way. So, if your mind is still right and you would like to learn more, please continue. If you are still in denial and one of those saying “One day I’ll make that change” or “When the kids are in school I’ll go back to the gym” or “That will be my New Year’s Resolution (AGAIN!)”—then you probably shouldn’t read any further. This blog will be entirely about plateaus which will apply to those that are putting forth the effort to be healthier NOW and with no excuses. So, here goes.

Let’s say you have been diligently working out and eating healthy- Congratulations to you. You should be proud of yourself and your accomplishments. You have been in the trenches and realize that it’s all about a lifestyle change, not just a temporary fix. In the heat of the battle you pushed forward with determination to meet your goals. You were well on your way and thought you had it all figured out, the scales were going lower and lower, the clothes sizes were smaller and smaller, the inches were falling off. Then all of sudden you hit a wall. You were expending the same amount of effort but no or very movement on the scales or tape measure. So, now you are frustrated, depressed and probably thinking “Why bother?”. Well the good news is you have not hit a permanent wall, you have hit a plateau. A plateau is defined as “a period or state of little or no growth or a decline”. And with the right tools a plateau doesn’t have to be permanent. Have you ever been driving home from your daily routine and needed to stop by the store? As you drove, your mind drifted or you were talking to your kids or spouse or jamming to the song on the radio and before you knew it you were driving your same little pig trail that brought you home every day and completely failed to make the turn that would take you to the store? That’s because even though you were distracted your mind knew where it was going because it went there everyday and it didn’t take any effort on your part to make it happen, it was all subconscious because it was a memory . Just like your mind, your muscles have memory. After you have been working out and doing the same thing over and over (because you were successful at it right?) your muscles have formed a memory of what you are expecting them to do. At first they struggled with it but after repeated efforts they start saying “Yeah, whatever, we got this” and it doesn’t take as much effort for them which means you are burning fewer calories doing the same thing that you were so successful at in the beginning.

So, what do you do? Research has shown that to keep our minds sharp it is recommended we work crossword puzzles or take a class in something because it makes us reach for things previously unknown to us, and that can be a little confusing at times. We do the same thing with our muscles, and it is called muscle confusion. We want to “shock” our muscles by doing something totally different from what we have done in the past. Here we go again, getting out of our comfort zones!!! For example, your exercise of choice has been to walk three miles a day. I’ll bet you are walking the same route. Change it! Find a route that has hills or a trail in the woods where the terrain is different. Or add some jogging into your walking routine. Wear a stop watch and walk for 3 minutes and jog for a minute. If you enjoy the jogging (and it doesn’t cause any joint pain) begin increasing your jog time until your jog time is equal to your walk time (walk 3 minutes, jog 3 minutes, etc). Or you can change your exercise of choice altogether and start riding a bike or taking an aerobics class or swimming. Whatever YOU enjoy doing, just make it different from what you were doing previously. After about a week or two you will notice everything will start moving again. Ta-Dah!! End of plateau. But beware, you will hit it again. That’s why you have to keep mixing your workouts up.

The same applies for lifting weights. If you can do 1,000 pull ups a day , guess what? You are maintaining but probably not progressing—muscle memory. Change it up! For example, many gyms have “circuit” machines, where you go from machine to machine working different muscle groups. A lot of times these machines are recommended for beginners because they are extremely effective and will help with form. However, after a time BAM there’s the wall!!! Then you have to learn something new because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Learn how to use free weights or use your own body weight to create resistance. You will be working the same muscle groups but in a different manner and it will confuse them and they will start firing right up again burning up those calories.

Something relatively new in research is that we are learning that eating the same foods day in and day out will cause the same plateau effect. Change up what you put in your mouth. Keep it healthy but maybe not eat that apple and peanut butter EVERYDAY for breakfast. Maybe have a bowl of high fiber cereal or a protein shake. DRINK WATER!!! LOTS OF WATER!!! You can’t drink too much. You may have to move your office into the bathroom but water benefits us in more ways than we know. It helps our digestive system, it hydrates, it keeps our skin looking younger and it has NO CALORIES or sugars or additives or fillers. Water is as natural as nature can get.

To summarize: The thing to remember about plateaus is they are temporary IF you change your routine AND don’t give up. Remember the definition of insanity. Don’t be afraid of change. You have already made huge lifestyle changes, don’t let the plateaus in life stop you from moving forward and reaching your goals. Learn something different. Do something different. In addition to busting plateaus “change” and “different” are confidence builders. Don’t be afraid to confuse ‘em and shake things up a bit. As always, if I can help you, please let me know.

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better”- Jim Rohn.